The Hewlett-East Rockaway Jewish Center welcome IDF lone soldier Ira Kohler to share his Oct. 7 story.
Tova Markowitz, head of the Israel Committee at HERJC, organized the event with Israel Committee member Pnina Knopf.
“When we heard about Ira, we wanted to try and get Ira to come here and we were trying to figure out dates,” Markowitz said. “We were able to get this date and we’re very excited because we know Ira has been speaking all around Long Island.”
Kohler, 24, from Plainview, was very involved with Jewish youth groups growing up.
“I’ve known Ira since he was in middle school and even back then I knew he was a very impressive young man,” HERJC Executive Director Lisa Stein said. “He was very active in the congregation and one of my most active USY (United Synagogue Youth) presidents. His commitment and demeanor and character always stood out, and it’s really something to watch and listen this past year.”
He attended Schecter School of Long Island and his family members belong to Midway Jewish Center, where Kohler is a former United Synagogue Youth president — a youth organization for Conservative Jewish teens in North America.
After graduating from the University of Delaware in August 2021, Kohler moved to Israel as a lone soldier.
A lone soldier is a soldier in the Israel Defense Forces with no family or friends there to support them.
Kohler served in the 890th Battalion of Paratrooper Brigade and finished his service in March 2024.
He was sent to the Gaza envelope on Oct. 7, specifically Kibbutz Be’eri and spent five months fighting there.
“I woke up at 6:30 am on Oct. 7 to buzzing from my phone showing red alerts in Israel, there’s always rockets in Israel so I tried to go back to bed,” Kohler said.
His commander came in 15 minutes later announcing there’s a situation in the south and that they needed to get ready.
“We realized there might be something bigger than just rockets, so we put our phones away and everything that I experienced from Oct. 7 on was from my own eyes not a phone,” Kohler said.
Upon entering Gaza via helicopter, his battalion was immediately under attack and they had to exit with their bags in front of their face for protection.
When Kohler and his battalion made it to Kibbutz Be’eri, their job was to rescue families that were hiding from Hamas terrorists.
“Our team rescued the last family at 2 a.m. between Oct. 7 and 8, we spent all of Oct. 8 and 9 fighting and took out the last terrorist in the morning of Oct. 9,” Kohler added. “It took 48 hours to finally clear the Kibbutz.”
He spent a total of 100 days in the Gaza Strip before his service ended.
“It’s just really impressive what Ira’s done and that he’s come and willing to share his story, we’re happy to have him here,” Stein said.
One of the recent goals of HERJC is to foster a stronger connection to Israel with the help of the Israel Committee.
“We really want to bring in first-hand account people, and our other goal is to bring out the culture of Israel, such as food, dancing and singing,” Markowitz said.
For more information visit HERJC.org.
